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, also known as ''Hudson's Adventure Island'', is a Video Game for the Nintendo Entertainment System and certain other platforms, first released in Japan for the Famicom on September 12 , 1986 and MSX in 1986. The North American NES release came in September, 1988 , and the game was released as '''''Adventure Island Classic''''' on the Europe an NES in 1992 . Developed by Hudson Soft , the game was an adaptation of the arcade game '' Wonder Boy '', which was ported to Sega home gaming systems under its original name, except for the North American release of the Game Gear version, where it was called '' Revenge Of Drancon ''. ''Adventure Island'' would go on to found a successful video game Franchise with many sequels. NAME CHANGE For trademark reasons, Hudson Soft renamed the game, and revamped the main character to be Takahashi Meijin , who is executive of Hudson Soft. In the English Language version they dubbed him "Master Higgins". ''Wonder Boy'', ''Adventure Island'', and ''Revenge of Drancon'' (the latter title was used on the American release of the Sega Game Gear version, because a ''Wonder Boy'' sequel had already been released on the system) are essentially the same game. ''Adventure Island'''s stage design more closely resembles that of the ''Wonder Boy'' Arcade version than the Sega Master System version; the SMS version of ''Wonder Boy'' featured, on every fourth area, original world designs that are not found in either the ''Wonder Boy'' arcade version or ''Adventure Island''. ORIGIN ''Adventure Island'' is not an entirely original creation by Hudson Soft. Hudson licensed the game from a company called Escape (later known as Westone OneBit Entertaiment) and it is even said that Escape helped Hudson developing ''Adventure Island''. Escape was responsible for developing ''Wonder Boy'' to the arcades. Because ''Wonder Boy'' was a game that Escape had created for Sega, the latter company owned the rights to the characters and bosses, and therefore the franchise could not be used as a release for the Famicom or NES. Escape, however, owned the rights to the regular monsters and the game itself. As a result, Hudson changed the sprites, music, and some of the items from Wonder Boy, removed the Continue feature and renamed it ''Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima'' (or Master Takahashi's Adventure Island). ''Adventure Island'' managed to sell more titles than ''Wonder Boy'' due to the lack of popularity of the Sega Master System in North America and Japan . '' Adventure Island 2 '', and all other ''Adventure Island'' sequels, were purely developed by Hudson. Escape had nothing to do with those games. On the left is a screenshot of Hudson Soft 's ''Adventure Island'' for NES. On the right is a screenshot of the same level on Sega 's ''Revenge of Drancon'' for Game Gear (which is almost identical to the SMS version of ''Wonder Boy''). STORYLINE ''Adventure Island'' is a side-scrolling platform game, in the same vein as '' Super Mario Bros. '' and '' Sonic The Hedgehog ''. Master Higgins is attempting to rescue his Mate by traversing the tropical island. GAMEPLAY Power-ups are found inside eggs, and include, but are not limited to, shooting power, skateboard, superior shooting power, and fairies. Running into an enemy, a rolling boulder, or a fire results in death, as does falling into water in the clouds level or into a pit. Stumbling over a small rock results in a partial loss of vitality. It is necessary to collect inexplicably floating food items by jumping in the air, or else Master Higgins will die. A fairy provides protection against enemies, boulders, and fire for a set while, but Higgins is always vulnerable to falling into pits and water. ZONES Adventure Island is divided into eight worlds with four levels each, followed by bosses at the end of the fourth level. Unlike Super Mario Bros., the segments of each level are marked to show where one will have to go back to, when starting over after the character dies. SEQUELS Sequels for 8-bit Nintendo Systems included '' Adventure Island II -IV'', which saw the introduction of a map. Sequels were also made for TurboGrafx-16 , Nintendo Game Boy , and Super NES . The ''Adventure Island'' sequels bear no relation to the ''Wonder Boy'' sequels (with the exception of ''Super Adventure Island II'', which features similar gameplay), which went in a very different direction. The original black and white Game Boy version of the same game bears little relation to its larger console cousin, instead resembling the NES and Game Boy sequel ''Adventure Island II''. RECENT RELEASES A port of the NES version has been released for Game Boy Advance in Japan, as part of the Famicom Mini series. A 2003 remake titled, ''Hudson Selection Volume 4: Adventure Island (Takahashi Meijin no Adventure Island)'' was released as a Japan-only game for the Nintendo GameCube and PS2 . The NES version was released on Virtual Console in North America on September 3 , 2007 . TRIVIA
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